Uncle Tom's Cabin

1903 Drama 19 minutes Directed by Edwin S. Porter

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About Uncle Tom's Cabin

Edwin S. Porter’s Edison film tells Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel in 14 titled scenes. Eliza asks Tom to run with her. He stays, and she flees with her child. Phineas helps her past the traders. The picture then follows Tom through his sale to his death. Shelby kneels beside him while visions pass: John Brown led to execution, a Civil War battle, and Lincoln with a kneeling figure whose chains are broken.

Cast & crew

More about Uncle Tom's Cabin

Porter directed and photographed the film, with Arthur White as production assistant. Edison copyrighted it on 30 July 1903 (H34001). It opened on 3 August 1903 at Huber’s Fourteenth Street Museum in New York, on a bill with live acts. Silent Era lists the release length as 1,100 feet and a September 1903 general release. The alternate title is Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Slavery Days.

Themes

  • Eliza’s escape
  • Tom’s death
  • A Tom show cut to one reel
  • Visions of Brown, the war, and Lincoln
  • Eliza
  • Uncle Tom
  • slave traders
  • John Brown
  • Lincoln
  • Tom show
  • Edison

Background

Most people who saw it in 1903 already knew a live Tom show, so the 14 scenes could skip dialogue the audience could supply.

Making

Porter shot the film inside the Edison studio in New Jersey, using actors, costumes, and stage business taken from a turn-of-the-century Tom show.

Look

Edwin S. Porter photographed it. The picture uses double exposure, miniature sets, and studio day-for-night.

Technique

In the Library of Congress paper-print collection it is an early use of a main title and of intertitles that describe the scene that follows.

Music

Silent, with English titles between the scenes.

Preservation

A 35mm paper positive is in the Library of Congress paper-print collection.

Notes

  • The movie is built as 14 scenes, each with its own set and a title card describing what follows.
  • Silent Era notes double exposure, miniature sets, and studio day-for-night.
  • The sets and business come from a theatrical Tom show. Which company Porter hired is not named in the surviving accounts.
  • On 12 September 1903 Sigmund Lubin released a shorter picture that Wikipedia calls remarkably similar. Silent Era notes that Lubin’s version was copyrighted first.
  • A copy on Wikipedia runs 23 minutes 54 seconds.

Scenes

  • Eliza asks Tom to run, then flees with her child while he stays.
  • At Tom’s death the frame opens onto John Brown, a Civil War battle, and Lincoln.

Influenced by

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
  • Theatrical Tom shows

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903).webm)

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